A piece of ground that is nigh unto cursing Heb. 6. 8. 6. He never came to God for entertainment not so much as like a stranger to ask his friendship and favour much less as a son who had absented himself to seek his fathers pardon but he lyeth out from him keeps at a distance will not come to Christ for life Joh. 5. 40. 7. Though he be a lost creature in himself yet he was never found but is lost still he is yet in the wilderness wandring upon the mountains and whiles it is thus what occasion can there be of special joy over him Use 1. Hence the joyes and boastings of unregenerate men are groundless Many talk of their hopes and comforts and soul satisfactions they tell how God refreshed them at this and that time with these and those promises nay they have had tastes of the powers of the world to come Alas enfatuated souls God doth not scatter his joyes promiscuously Though men may God will not make a needless feast USE 2. It may put men upon enquiry when they cannot find that comfort and joy in their service which they expect whither this may not be the reason of it I do not say it is alwayes so the best Saint may sit in the dark Isa 50. 10. And there are other reasons why the al-wise God will make his own Children to fast and to mourn too Many falls much heedlesness yea their weakness to bear much of this new wine God stints his own People and will not kill them with Cordials But I say it is a good enquiry hast thou not nor ever hadst any tast of these joyes ask then am I new born c If there be none of this wonder not there was no occasion most men act preposterously they try their grace by their joyes whereas they ought to try their joyes by their Grace DOCT. 2. Vnregenerate men have no cause to complain that God shews more special favour to repenting sinners that he doth to them What ever they think they have to say for themselves yet God wrongs them not The father could entertain the younger son without injuring his elder This will appear if we consider 1. That God in the dispensing of his grace acts as a free Agent This is insinuated in that Parable Mat. 20. 15. A Father is not bound to give an account to his Children how he improves his estate much less is God to sinful men how he distributes his grace The Creature cannot oblige the Creator much less a sinful creature who hath forfeited all It is the Apostles Challenge Rom. 11. 31. Who hath given to him at any time There cannot be respect of persons in gratuitis there is no binding rule of justice in the bestowing of kindness and where the benefit is a free favour the chusing one and passing by another is arbitrary and depends on the will of the Doner In Gods bestowing of Grace on the Children of men there can be none worthy and if he will pitch upon the most unworthy to make his favour the more notable who shall call him to an account 2. That the best works of the most refined hypocrites are no ways obliging or deserving An unregenerate man may do many things materially good he may pray confess his sins read the word attend upon ordinances carry fair among men abstain from many evils do many duties but still they deserve no favour nay they deserve the wrath of God Their prayer is abomination their plowing sin their oblations detestable Isa 66. begin If the Godly do confess their best to be rags their holy duties dung what then must we say of what the unregenerate do who have no saving principle of holiness no meadiatour through whom to obtain acceptance no good end in their performances 3. That the same grace is tendered to them and the same means of obtaining it are afforded them if therefore they go without it it is their own fault Men are indeed ready to say God's wayes are unequal when their own wayes are so The proffer of Grace in the Gospel is universal if men thirst God shews them the waters and bids them come freely if they thirst not and will not come who is to blame God stretcheth out his hand all the day long but they gain say God saith If they will repent and believe they shall be saved but they say These many years have I served thee neither at any time transgressed I thy commandment God saith if you be sick here is a Physitian they say we are well and need him not And what wrong then is it to them if when a company of sick souls who feel their malady and are ready to dy of it come to him for healing he shows his skill if when a company of hunger-starved beggars come to him for food he feeds them yea plentifully feasts them USE Learn we hence in stead of quarreling with to admire the free grace of God which opens a door of hope to the greatest and worst of sinners Do not discourage or dash the hopes of any be not afraid to invite the worst to come to Christ upon Gospel-terms nor let any poor soul that is stung with sin that sees it ly as mountains between him and God despair of Salvation Lo Christ came skipping over the mountains and leaping over the hills Say not can God save me and be just He hath satisfied his own Justice and will silence the cavils of Men and Devils Say not there is no hope for me think therefore of the Prodigal Are there such bowels in men and are not God's thoughts above ours This Parable was written for thy sake who hast been a chief sinner and now art humbled to encourage thee to go to God in the name of Christ and to hope for his mercy DOCT. 3. Then and not till then is there true cause of rejoycing over a sinner when he is converted and brought home to God This the father thinks enough to silence all the grumblings of his discontented son vers 32. What cause there is of joy at such time hath been expressed under a former Doctrine that there is none before may in a word be cleared from the consideration of what every sinner is before conversion I confess men may differ in many things of an inferiour nature one may be better morally disposed than another one may have more restraining grace a more affable nature carry it more obediently to his Parents be more reformed c. than another But in this the state of all unregenerate men before conversion is alike viz. that they are 1. Dead creatures under the power of spiritual death rotting in the grave of sin we do not use to rejoyce over our dead Children and relations but to weep and mourn They can do nothing for God nor for their own souls Salvation they cannot glorifie him c. 2. They are Children of wrath Eph 2. 3. They are blasted by the curse held under condemnation
are under Tutors and Guardians the while but then they shall take possession of all the Glories of Heaven and fulness of Christ they now rejoyce that their names are written in Heaven then they shall themselves be there placed upon thrones and wear Crowns Reas 2. From the different degrees of their fruition They have something now to live upon by Faith there is something of heaven that doth come down into the souls of Believers here upon earth but they are but earnests like a bunch of grapes to refresh them in a wilderness which though it be sweeter than all that is in the world yet it is but little to that Canaan where these grow in abundance they have spiced draughts here but then the mountain of spices Psal 16. ult fulness of joy is in thy presence Reas 3. From the mixture and allays of their joyes here which shall not be in another world The joyes of Believers are here sometimes interrupted a cloud intercepts the Sun a curtain is drawn before their window they are in the dark and see no light Though Faith be never lost yet sense is many times taken away they have broken bones to pain them Yea all along the presence of sin that captivating power of the body of death put them into mourning their clearest sun-shine is attended with showers so that their present joyes cannot be full but there no cloud doth arise that upper world enjoyes a perpetual serenity There is no sin to molest them no frown of a father to deject them nothing to cut off their full and endless communion with Jesus Christ the fountain of life and glory USE 1. This may help to strengthen and augment a Believers present joy There is a vast difference between a meer penny and an earnest penny Though we see but a little light just at day breaking yet this is the comfort of it that it is an harbinger to and witness of the Suns rising shortly so though they be but weak and faint beams of comfort that are glimmering upon our hearts yet this is our happiness that they dart in to tell us that we shall ere long be put into possession of all that felicity which Christ hath bought and paid for USE 2. Let this also serve to sweeten to our thoughts the apprehension of our change If a drop doth so refresh thy soul as to fetch it again to life when just dying think how blessed then are they who dwel by the fountain and drink their fill of it every day Ah what will it be to be in his armes everlastingly Didst thou hear his voice in an Ordinance it was so full of charms that thy ravished soul could hardly keep in from quitting its mortal tabernacle What will it then be to feel his everlasting embraces How welcome should this make the messenger of Death yea how pleasantly may it make thee to meditate upon and put into thee a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all SERMON XXVI Vers 25. Now his elder Son was in the field and as he came out and drew nigh unto the house he heard musick and dancing Vers 26. And he called one of the servants and asked him what these things meant Vers 27. And he said unto him thy brother is come and thy father hath killed the fatted Calf because he hath received him safe and sound Vers 28. And he was angry THe third part of the Parable hath been spoken to and therein I have have given an account of the main matter intended in the this discourse viz. To make discovery of the wretchedness and unworthiness of a sinner the riches of the grace of God in his Conversion the nature also and quality of converting grace I shall very briefly pass over this fourth and last part in which we have described the carriage of the elder son by whom we observed in the beginning our Saviour aims at the scribes and Pharisees whose murmuring at his familiarizing of himself with Publicans and sinners gave occasion to this and the foregoing Parable He is called the Elder because these men looked upon themselves as the proper heirs and inheriters of the Promises took themselves to be the only men of merit and thought that all favour shewn to Publicans was misapplyed In this part of the Parable there are two parts 1. The offence which this son took at his father's carriage to his younger brother vers 25. to 31. 2. The Father 's vindicating the righteousness and equity of the carriage vers 31 32. 1. In the offense we may observe 1. The ground of it viz. The information given him of his brothers entertainment partly by his ears confused vers 25. and partly by information upon enquiry vers 26 27. further illustrated by the place where he was when all this was done vers 25. 2. The offence it self described 1. Positively vers 28. 2. In its aggravations vers 28 29 30. where he justifieth himself against his father's entreaties condemns his brother and accuseth his father of ingratitude if not injustice I shall give you some brief hints from these several passages 1. We may take notice where this Elder son was when all this was done viz. in the field about his business following his vocation hard at work Hence DOCT. 1. Outward careful attendance upon the visible service of God is no sure sign of a sincere Christian. The eldest son was in the field and where could he have been better He was getting mony while the other was spending it The Scribes Pharisees were great sticklers in the law and outward worship of God hear how he boasts of himself Luk. 18. 11. and yet all this may be where there is no sincerity see Mat. 5. 20. A man may do abundance and be a stranger to saving grace Reas 1. Because a man may do all this upon false and unsound principles for 1. There may be bodily service where there is not the heart Ezek. 33. 31. It is the censure which our Saviour passed upon the Pharisees of his time applying the saying of the Prophet to them Mat. 15. 7 8. and declared it to be vain service vers 9. Hence that 1 Tim. 4. 8. Bodily exercise profiteth little 2. Men may do all this for outward credit and applause When Religion is in fashion there are many that court it meerly for fashion sake many love to be as the times are Many are very Religious only in complement to be talked of commended c. This fault also our Saviour found in the Pharisees and chargeth hypocrisie on them for it Mat. 6. 1 and 5. 3. Men may do a great deal because they hope to be saved for their doing As there is in all men a reaching desire after happiness so there is also a natural pride they are willing to be their own saviours in quest of which men will take much pains and when they apprehend life to be had by doing they will do much this
shrink up to nothing and his soul be filled with perplexing sorrows 5. Now the world in which he trusted will without doubt leave him at a loss The Magazene from whence he hoped to fetch his livelihood will be found empty the Cistern will appear to be broken and have no water in it he shal be far from finding it able to direct him to true solid comfort or so much as point him to that which can indeed give him life If a sinner be perishing he must needs perish for all that the world can do to save him here is not one moâ—sel of the Bread of Life to keep a soul from Perdition if he could gain it all that would not save his soul Mat. 16. 26. If he ask for bread it gives him a stone if a fish a scorpion he may wander from sea to sea seeking the bread of life and find none Hence the wiseman in answer to the great question where good is to be found or where a man may fill himself with substance and find content returns it in the Negative respecting the world and all that is in it and that because it is empty vain and vexatious in the proof whereof he spends a whole Book viz. that of Ecclesiastes If a man wants eternal life he may ask every creature for it but all answer no it is not in me he that doth for the present rely here and hopes it shal be well with him doth but feed upon ashes and cherish him self up with false expectations As man cannot find his life in himself so neither shal he mend himself in the world he goes but from one want to another from a famine within doors to a famine abroad if he goes to the world he dyes and if he rests in himself he dyes he doth but rise to fall he doth but go abroad to meet with that death which was coming home to him USE 1. To teach us the certain necessity of the perdition of all those souls that have nothing else to trust to in their need but this world and the vanities of it What fools are the sons and daughters of men that lay out their time and thoughts and care to get into the worlds favour and secure to themselves a refuge here What will you do when the day of distress comes upon you Men think they shal inherit substance but they purchase nothing but famine The world seems full to a carnal mind he thinks it affords all that heart can wish if he can have this to friend he fears no want but the soul shal to its cost find that it is empty void and wast The soul of man must have something to live upon or else it is undone this is the great want and for this want the creature hath no supply whiles it feeds the body the soul starves It is not it self soul-food it cannot be the happiness of any man neither can it be the price of the purchase of it earths Mony will not pass in heavens Exchange riches profit not in the day of wrath Prov. 11. 4. What is it then that the Children of Men are doing whiles they digg deep and labour hard to build up a fabrick for themselves with such materials with which they cannot ward themselves from wrath buy themselves out of the hands of death nor brible the flames of hell he that hath laid in nothing else to live upon to all eternity but this vanishing world must needs famish anâ— therefore USE 2. Let it be a loud and awakeninâ— Call to all unregenerate sinners if you woulâ— not suffer the utmost distress of the most pincâ—ing famine to get away from the world Make hast out of your natural state live nâ— longer in this far Country your distance froâ— God is your misery return to him and yoâ— shal be happy You that live jocund and plesant you that think all is well and shal be â—â— though you add iniquity to sin be perswadeâ— to take this warning As much pomp anâ— splendor as you now live in as satisfied as yoâ— are at present ere it be long a famine will comâ— a mighty famine and what will you do then Oh fly from it before you come to the utmoâ—â— distress Did Abraham go to Egypt the Shummite to the Philistins being warned of a temporal famine Do not you then despise thâ— warning to come out of Egypt and Philistiâ—â— to escape a spiritual famine Be assured it will be a sore and distressing thing to feel wrath and misery siezing upon you and have nothing but a vain world to go to miserable comforters shal you find all these things to be they will not afford you one dram of consolation nor give one morsel of quiet to your souls you may cry and roar in your distress but there will be none to help you God whom you have forsaken it may be will not and to be sure the world in which you have trusted cannot It will be a complicate misery to be a bankrupt and in a far Country and there to be siezed with a mighty famine now you are called to avoid this All you want is with God for though the world be empty he is full that can supply no spiritual necessity he can satisfie all there you must needs perish here you may be saved and satisfied There is bread in Egypt when all other countries have none but look one upon another and pine and dy There is no want with God there is nothing else but want every where else Do but open your eyes the Lord open them for you the famine is upon you now though you discern it not see and be affected with and fly from it and let this be your encouragement that though you have provoked God by going from him and abused his goodness yet as there is with him enough and to spare so upon your penitent return you need not doubt or fear but to find relief and welcome with him as will also appear in the sequel of the Parable Only do you know your misery and fly to God in time to get a redress of it so shal you find in him all that which is in vain and to no purpose you have been seeking in an howling wilderness in a famishing world SERMON VII 2 THus of the causes of or leading occasions to this young Man's misery iâ— follows to take notice of one great effect arising from it according as it is expressed in this vers He began to be in want The word that is used in our Text signifies to be or to fall behind and is wont to be used of such as come too late to a Feast as the five foolish Virgins Mat. 25. 11. or of men that are left behind in a Race as Heb. 4. 1. The meaning of it in our Text is that he now began to be pinched with indigence now the sense of the misery of his condition came upon him Such is our English phrase to fall behind and
easily have seen plainly have discovered and so prevented that which now thou feelest they were words of weight which were spoken to thee but thou wouldest not hear nor consider and art therefore justly fallen into that pit from whence there is no recovery and drowned in that destruction from which thou mightest have been delivered And is it not better to consider now than to deferr it till then If now thou wilt consider it may tend to life and the saving of thy soul and so prove thy happiness but assure thy self hells considerations will be torments and fiery reflections yea that eating worm that dies not but shall pray upon the soul for ever Be wise then in time The matter of this consideration is the next thing to be taken notice of in the following words of our Text. SERMON XII HAving thus considered of the Prodigals deliberation in general we now come to look upon the motives themselves by which he argued himself into a resolution to return to his father and these are two which do comprize under them in general the two main heads of consideration the one respects his father the other himself The order of them is Rhetorically propounded where the first argument is last placed in the deliberation for doubtless mans necessity first drives him or else God's goodness would never draw him Proud man will live at home as long as he can The motives are joyned together because neither alone will do but both together are needful to make a full perswasive to a Sinner to return to God Man's misery throughly apprehended without the discovery of Gods mercy would drive to despair and Gods mercy propounded to a man that is insensible of his need of it would be slighted and refused But where these two meet in one the former drives a man out of himself and the latter draws him to God I shall endeavour to speak of them severally 1. The first motive is taken from the consideration of his own condition in these words I perish with hunger As the word bread is Synechdochically used to express all manner of necessary supplyes so is hunger for every want of what is needful for the comfort of man's life and here in a spiritual sense it intends the absence of all that might save the soul from destruction Hunger also is by a Metonymy of the effect put for famine which produceth hunger by taking away that which should prevent it The words express the deep distress which the young man was reduced unto sensibly apprehended by him and is Emphatically set forth 1. By the cause of it hunger or famine he hath nothing whereon to live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deficere there was a failing or want of provision 2. By the effect of it sensibly felt and personally applyed I perish The word in our text is of an harsh signification the best sense of it is to die but it signifies not death barely but Destruction it is q. d. this hunger will certainly destroy me I have no hopes to live in this famine I might here observe DOCT. I. The Soul of Man without sutable spiritual supplies must needs perish There is a natural consequence of dying upon a famine if no relief come and if the soul have nothing to live upon it must needs die for ever which might learn us USE 1. Their folly who take care only for their bodies and neglect their souls and truly every unregenerate man is such an one he takes heed to provide for the feeding and clothing of his body but layes in no provision for his better part and so much the greater is this folly in as much as ten thousand bodily deaths are not comparable to the death or loss of a soul Mat. 16. 26. USE 2. To teach us to prize the means and supplies which God affords for the relief of our souls That is a terrible famine mentioned Amos 8. 11 12. Not of bread nor of waters but of hearing the word of God Deprecate it as the sorest evil And having such provision made for your souls as God is pleased to give you in a place of such plenty of the means of grace labour to love to prize to feed and live upon it starve not in the midst of plentty lest you be found wilful self-murderers But I shall not insist on this the main thing follows therefore DOCT. II. In order to the conversion of a sinner God makes him deeply apprehensive that he is perishing with hunger We must carefully distinguish between the reality of a mans state and the sense that he bears of that state The famine was all over that land but none feels the distructiveness of it but this poor Prodigal All mankind whiles in a state of nature are famishing creatures but it is but some few among them that feel it the rest perish insensibly The work we are here speaking of is that which Divines call a lost state and it comprehends in it the first part of preparatory humiliation which is properly the beating of a sinner wholly off from himself and all that is in himself in point of sufficiency In the Explication of the Doctrine we may consider 1. Some thing of the nature of this work 2. The necessity of it in order to Conversion 1. Concerning the nature of this work of what it is for a Soul to be sensibly perishing with hunger and how he is brought unto this sense observe The Spirit of God raiseth in him a manifest and irresistable conviction of three things which laid together do reduce him to this exigency or distress and all this is the work of the Spirit in the means for all mens conditions being really one and the same by nature why else should not all that enjoy the same means of Conviction be alike apprehensive of it but the spirit imprints it upon some and not others Now the things are these 1 He kindles in him an eager and pinching hunger note that besides that spiritual and gracious hunger of the Soul after righteousness mentioned Mat. 5. 6. there is also a preparatory hunger which is oppressive to and grievously distresseth the soul see Isai 65. 13. My Servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry Now this hunger is made up of these two things Viz. 1. A deep apprehension of distressing misery lying upon him and making his spirits to fail and heart to faint God opens the Sinners eyes to see and find that which before he neither knew nor believed that the wrath of God is upon him that he is a cursed creature that he hath lost all grace and is in danger of the miseries of Hell he finds his Soul to be in a condition extreamly dangerous exposed to the executions of divine Vengeance he now believes because he feels that wrath is upon him sees a Sword of vengeance drawn against him 2. An earnest longing to be rid of and free from this distress as the hungry man longs that he may have some food
but saith to the Almighty depart men that have supplies within doors will not go abroad and knock at other doors for relief Hence to a proud and carnally confident sinner it is no encouragement that God hath bread enough and is ready to distribute it to such as come and ask it for what is that to him who needs it not who is full and wants for nothing He feels himself well and lusty the Physitian may go about his business he hath no need of him 2. Hence also these encouragments are not nextly and immediately exhibited to sinners till they come to this state and sense The Gospel is not properly preached to men till they are prepared for it by the Law Christ therefore saith that he did not come to call the righteous i. e. men rich with the opinion of their own sanctity but sinners i. e. such as were sensible of sin It is the hunger-bitten soul that longs for bread the faint and thirsty that hearkens after springs of water Christ propound his Grace to souls when it is like to be welcome these therefore are wont to go together sense of utmost distress and a discovery of the riches and readiness of Christ for succour the first of these without the second breeds dispair the second without the first meets with scorn and contempt USE 1. For Information 1. That he that would have any encouragement to wait on God for grace must seek it in God alone and not in himself The throughly awakened sinner must indeed look both on God and himself too but he must see in himself nothing but ground of dispair and all his hope in God Hos 13. 9. This therefore dasheth their hopes who would fain find in themselves that which may encourage them and are therefore made to despond by their unworthiness the greatness of their sin c. this also may encourage those that see the worst in themselves none like them for sin and misery why God is the same 2. That they lay blocks in the way of their own conversion that only sit poring upon their own misery and look no further What good would it have done the poor Prodigal to have only sat and wrung his hands and cryed I perish I perish If he had looked no farther he had perished indeed Though we must begin here yet we must not end here but look further for encouragement The distressed man's enquiry is where shal I have help and so must yours and now the spirit of grace is ready to direct you to one that is both able and full therefore USE 2. Let it be for a word of encouragement to those that are at the point of death who feel themselves miserable but neither in themselves nor elsewhere can find deliverance and are possibly ready to pass a sad sentence upon themselves that there is no hope for their souls Thou hast seen an end of all created perfection thou hast come to the bottom of thine own confidence thou hast found an empty world felt an empty soul but didst thou never hear of God or hast thou never tryed him If not do not yet despair first see what he can and will do for thee you will say I have tryed many courses and they fail and I am dis-heartened well but this is a way never yet frustrated thee and let these Attributes put a little comforting hope into thy soul consider then and believe 1. That God is able to help thee He hath all that and more than all that which thou needest He hath eternal life with him to give to all those that ask it of him thou art starving but he can feed thee thou art perishing but he can save thee God loves to commend his power to us that we may take hold of it Isa 27. 5. Let him lay hold of my strength that he may make peace with him Look upon him 1. As he is God That word is enough to tell thee he is able God thinks it a word big enough to encourage his desponding and almost despairing people Isa 45. 22. Look unto me for I am God The reason why thou canst find no help among the creatures is because they are not God Isa 31. 3. The Egyptians are men and not God And that you may know what he can do as God look upon the work of Creation when God would hearten his people to rely upon him he calls up their consideration hither Isa 44. 24 25. 12. 15. What cannot he who made a world out of nothing do Could God call for a world and it answered his call and can not he save a poor sinner from perishing doubtless he can what serve all the Divine Attributes for but to display the greatness and immensity of the power of God 2. As he is God in Christ And there you shall see how he is not only absolutely able but also sutably laid in with sufficient supply to save the perishing souls of prodigal sinners from perdition Christ is a great Store-house in whom is laid up all provision needful for the famishing posterity of fallen Adam the great discouragement of a convinced sinner is how can God do it and be just Though there be a fountain of goodness in God able to satisfie the soul that enjoyes it yet sin hath stopt up the channel and Divine Justice interposeth condemning the sinner to dy But now in Christ all these Channels are opened again he hath satisfied Justice and so broken open a new and and living way to God and presented him sitting on a Throne of Grace and thus God is able notwithstanding his Justice to open treasures of many to sinners and fill every hungry soul with good things Divine sufficiency is by this means rendred communicable to the Children of men And it is in this sense the Apostle speaks Eph. 3. 20. He is able to do more than we can ask or think Otherwise it had been a mockery put upon dying sinners to have told them of abundant store of Grace and good which it was no wayes possible for them to come at Now it is your work and business to apply this to your condition and say though I am perishing yet there is a possibility that I may be supplyed though the world cannot relieve me yet God can and that not only by absolute power but in a feizable way of his own finding out I may then live and not dy And the very belief of this probability hath driven many a soul to him and thou maist as well as the poor leper frame a petition and argument out of it If thou wilt thou canst Out of doubt it opens a door of hope for a soul to know and believe that if God will he can both save him and be just 2. That God is bountiful and ready to relieve such as are in want This may add to thy encouragement and hope though thou art not certain that he will help thee The Prodigal did not know that his father would